click
Established
After a persistent gallery owner hounded me for about a year I finally had a show. I wasn't really interested because I thought I'd lose money on it. Eventually I decided that I'd get some work out the deal so it might be worth it.
As it turned out, I did actually make a profit by about double what I put into it. The gallery owner has asked me to leave the show up for another month and I also got some business out of the deal so all was good.
The images that I thought were the strongest did not sell, the weaker ones did. So much for being my own critic.
Overall it was a great experience.
As it turned out, I did actually make a profit by about double what I put into it. The gallery owner has asked me to leave the show up for another month and I also got some business out of the deal so all was good.
The images that I thought were the strongest did not sell, the weaker ones did. So much for being my own critic.
Overall it was a great experience.
charjohncarter
Veteran
Congratulations, I especially liked the part about the ones you thought were weak sold better. Somehow, I can identify with that.
click
Established
Thank you,
It is odd how we view our own work and what we think is stunning, others don't seem to notice.
It is odd how we view our own work and what we think is stunning, others don't seem to notice.
charjohncarter
Veteran
Why don't you post some of the images you showed. I think we all would like to see them. And if you could label which sold well. It is nice to hear of people actually buying photos, let's hope the public continues to purchase.
leica M2 fan
Veteran
The exact same thing has happened to me. The ones I thought were so good draw no comments and the ones I didn't really feel like posting up get the raves. Go figure!
bmorena
Newbie
Congrats. I love to hear success stories. +1 on seeing some of the work.
dave lackey
Veteran
Fantastic! Love hearing about this sort of thing and it has to be special for you.
Personally, I would like to know more about the images you showed and how they were presented (framed, hung on the wall, etc.). I have a couple of opportunities coming up and would love to learn from you.:angel:
Personally, I would like to know more about the images you showed and how they were presented (framed, hung on the wall, etc.). I have a couple of opportunities coming up and would love to learn from you.:angel:
wafflecakee
Well-known
congrats, post some photos from the show!
bojanfurst
Well-known
Congrats. I would love to see some photographs, too. As for those you thought weak selling - it's almost always the case. By now, I just accept that if something sells well, it does not necessarily mean it's my strongest work. It's just sells well, which is great and valuable because it lets me do other stuff that doesn't sell so well
Enjoy your success!
Cheers.
Fürst
Enjoy your success!
Cheers.
Fürst
Vics
Veteran
Congratulsations on the success of your show!
In 2008, my wife and I were at the end of a long tour of France, and spent the last night of our trip at the Hotel Francais across from the Gare de l'est. We were packing up for our flight home, and I realised that my M3 had some film in it. It was dark outside, and I stepped out onto the tiny balcony and tood a few frames of the street below just to get the film out of the cam. When I posted up my pictures from the trip on flickr, the best responses I got were those night shots. I don't know what to learn from that!
In 2008, my wife and I were at the end of a long tour of France, and spent the last night of our trip at the Hotel Francais across from the Gare de l'est. We were packing up for our flight home, and I realised that my M3 had some film in it. It was dark outside, and I stepped out onto the tiny balcony and tood a few frames of the street below just to get the film out of the cam. When I posted up my pictures from the trip on flickr, the best responses I got were those night shots. I don't know what to learn from that!
swoop
Well-known
If you want to see his images, go see his show.
Nigel Meaby
Well-known
Practical if you live local to the show but if on a completely different continent not so feasible!
Bobbo
Well-known
I'm with the Internet club... "Pics, or it didn't happen..." Hehe.
Mazel tov on the show, by the way. If I lived in a town physically large enough to have such things)), I would love to put one on eventually.
Mazel tov on the show, by the way. If I lived in a town physically large enough to have such things
)), I would love to put one on eventually.click
Established
Thanks!
The experience was a lot better than I expected, I halfheartedly felt like people weren't even going to notice but more and more people kept coming up to me and commenting. It really validated me carrying around my camera everyday for fourteen years. I'm sure people just thought I was some lunatic, suddenly they got it. "Oh wow, that's what you're doing with that old camera."
I put up ten images, nine (11x14) in black and white and one (24x36) in color. I sold four of the color images and four black and white. The grainless texture images of Tmax 100, 400 and one shot done on scala 200 did not sell at all but people commented on them to some extent. Lots of people told me they wanted to buy "x" but just couldn't afford it.
What really stirred people was the stuff I'd shot with tmax 3200 at 6400 and was very grainy. I cannot count the number of people who told me how much they liked that stuff and the fact that they respected that I still used film. A couple of the prints were sold to other photographers. What I learned is that what really sells is your style and no deviation from it. I have a quill pointillism background and the pictures that sold looked like my old drawings and that's truly what I like. I made the shots with fine grain films thinking "this is what people want" but what they really want is complete honesty.
I framed the 11x14's in 16x20 frames with white mattes that have a black bevel (to keep the eye from wandering out of the frame) the large matte helps give the viewer some breathing room. The frames were completely basic black but of good quality. I had a professional frame each picture to get perfect matte lines.
Every picture but one was printed full frame because I wanted to see how people reacted to a cropped image. I will never, ever crop an image again. Each picture was hung in a continuous line with the horizontal center axis aligned. The images were nailed into the mortar between bricks (easy to align) and the venue is a historical Whorehouse which really adds to the charm.
At the end of the show I was asked if they could keep them up for another month and then asked to have another show in October, I agreed. The next show will only be work from the time period of the last (current) show.
For the next show I'm going to make up 10 small prints of each image and matte them to sell to people who like the stuff but can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on a picture to hang on their wall.
I was not prepared for the amount of attention I got and really didn't know how to handle it. I spend way too much time by myself and this was a sales process that I've never been in before, mostly I just tried to be as sincere as I could. For the next show I'm better prepared. I certainly don't think "Oh, I'm the greatest ever..." but after people were fawning I would think "maybe I'm better at this than I thought."
Another thing of note is the sheer street cred I got for using film, a Leica, and only one lens. I heard over and over "You're a real Photographer!" Very validating.
I also got a bunch of business out of the deal! Which is the best part. Notably a person who has a degree in photography hired me. So I get to eat one more day!
Thanks for all the encouragement!
For some reason it's not letting me post images, I'm sure I'm doing something wrong.
The experience was a lot better than I expected, I halfheartedly felt like people weren't even going to notice but more and more people kept coming up to me and commenting. It really validated me carrying around my camera everyday for fourteen years. I'm sure people just thought I was some lunatic, suddenly they got it. "Oh wow, that's what you're doing with that old camera."
I put up ten images, nine (11x14) in black and white and one (24x36) in color. I sold four of the color images and four black and white. The grainless texture images of Tmax 100, 400 and one shot done on scala 200 did not sell at all but people commented on them to some extent. Lots of people told me they wanted to buy "x" but just couldn't afford it.
What really stirred people was the stuff I'd shot with tmax 3200 at 6400 and was very grainy. I cannot count the number of people who told me how much they liked that stuff and the fact that they respected that I still used film. A couple of the prints were sold to other photographers. What I learned is that what really sells is your style and no deviation from it. I have a quill pointillism background and the pictures that sold looked like my old drawings and that's truly what I like. I made the shots with fine grain films thinking "this is what people want" but what they really want is complete honesty.
I framed the 11x14's in 16x20 frames with white mattes that have a black bevel (to keep the eye from wandering out of the frame) the large matte helps give the viewer some breathing room. The frames were completely basic black but of good quality. I had a professional frame each picture to get perfect matte lines.
Every picture but one was printed full frame because I wanted to see how people reacted to a cropped image. I will never, ever crop an image again. Each picture was hung in a continuous line with the horizontal center axis aligned. The images were nailed into the mortar between bricks (easy to align) and the venue is a historical Whorehouse which really adds to the charm.
At the end of the show I was asked if they could keep them up for another month and then asked to have another show in October, I agreed. The next show will only be work from the time period of the last (current) show.
For the next show I'm going to make up 10 small prints of each image and matte them to sell to people who like the stuff but can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on a picture to hang on their wall.
I was not prepared for the amount of attention I got and really didn't know how to handle it. I spend way too much time by myself and this was a sales process that I've never been in before, mostly I just tried to be as sincere as I could. For the next show I'm better prepared. I certainly don't think "Oh, I'm the greatest ever..." but after people were fawning I would think "maybe I'm better at this than I thought."
Another thing of note is the sheer street cred I got for using film, a Leica, and only one lens. I heard over and over "You're a real Photographer!" Very validating.
I also got a bunch of business out of the deal! Which is the best part. Notably a person who has a degree in photography hired me. So I get to eat one more day!
Thanks for all the encouragement!
For some reason it's not letting me post images, I'm sure I'm doing something wrong.
click
Established
I tried again to post images, no avail. Throw the analogue guy a bone on how to do this.
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Ranchu
Veteran
Congratulations click! You can upload pics directly to the thread from your hard drive with the little 'landscape sunrise' button on top of the entry box for posting. Up there^ when you're replying. It'll open a little window where you can browse to the location of the pic on your hd. You have to have javascript on in your browser I think. The other way involves pointing RFF at the file when It's already hosted somewhere else, flickr or whatnot. I've never done that, I hope this helps!
tj01
Well-known
What size do you think this will be ?
click
Established
The first installment. Wow I can't believe it worked! Thanks for the info on how to do that.
I'm going to make the small prints 5x7 and price them low. I think that lots of people really like photography but it's just out of their budget. At that size I bet I would actually make more from sheer numbers and get a handle on what people really like.
I probably don't have to say this but I'm embarrassed at how bad the scanned prints look. I've given up on trying to get good scans from B&W prints or negatives, color is an entirely easy matter and you can really see it in the one color picture. These are scanned 5x7 test prints.
The first image of the reporter and the house burning was what I thought the strongest image. The foreground is expressive and interesting, I can feel the heat of the asphalt and the photographer in the foreground pulls me in. There's a triangle of people on the ground (hard to see in a small internet print) and a triangle created by the photographer, firefighter and the captain on the ground all of which mirror the triangles on the house. I felt like the composition of this image was by far the strongest, the moment was decisive and it was a powerful spectacle. This image did not sell. Maybe I can sell it to an insurance agency, haha! Note that the house belonged to a professional "psychic". insert the cliche' here.
The second image of the flag sold to a guy from the department of defense who said "You summed it up, all of it, in one picture. I love it"
The third is my style and how I shoot whenever I'm not doing work for anyone but me. The final print was far more expressive than this example. A professional photographer bought it and lots of people really seemed to like it. I heard "My favorite is that one" quite a few times.
I'm going to make the small prints 5x7 and price them low. I think that lots of people really like photography but it's just out of their budget. At that size I bet I would actually make more from sheer numbers and get a handle on what people really like.
I probably don't have to say this but I'm embarrassed at how bad the scanned prints look. I've given up on trying to get good scans from B&W prints or negatives, color is an entirely easy matter and you can really see it in the one color picture. These are scanned 5x7 test prints.
The first image of the reporter and the house burning was what I thought the strongest image. The foreground is expressive and interesting, I can feel the heat of the asphalt and the photographer in the foreground pulls me in. There's a triangle of people on the ground (hard to see in a small internet print) and a triangle created by the photographer, firefighter and the captain on the ground all of which mirror the triangles on the house. I felt like the composition of this image was by far the strongest, the moment was decisive and it was a powerful spectacle. This image did not sell. Maybe I can sell it to an insurance agency, haha! Note that the house belonged to a professional "psychic". insert the cliche' here.
The second image of the flag sold to a guy from the department of defense who said "You summed it up, all of it, in one picture. I love it"
The third is my style and how I shoot whenever I'm not doing work for anyone but me. The final print was far more expressive than this example. A professional photographer bought it and lots of people really seemed to like it. I heard "My favorite is that one" quite a few times.
Attachments
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click
Established
Second helping...
The first image sold and is part of a documentary I did on mental illness. I like the picture and was very surprised it sold. It's the moment a middle aged woman realizes she will never have children. I love the moment and the the composition is textbook.
The next image is literally an experiment in breaking the rules of composition and it was the first picture to sell and went as soon as the show opened. Someone accused me of photoshopping the guy in, whatever that means. This picture is also indicative of my style.
This is the picture I cropped and while I love the picture I can't stand the crop.
The first image sold and is part of a documentary I did on mental illness. I like the picture and was very surprised it sold. It's the moment a middle aged woman realizes she will never have children. I love the moment and the the composition is textbook.
The next image is literally an experiment in breaking the rules of composition and it was the first picture to sell and went as soon as the show opened. Someone accused me of photoshopping the guy in, whatever that means. This picture is also indicative of my style.
This is the picture I cropped and while I love the picture I can't stand the crop.
Attachments
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click
Established
Third installment...
The first picture is part of a series I did on bipolar disorder. It is no accident that she looks like a mannequin, stilted and unnatural. Bipolar people are constantly struggling to hold themselves together.
The horses are just a shot that I liked for me, but isn't really indicative of my style. I do like the movement of the shot. Lame composition really. did not sell and certainly the weakest image. More soot and chalk in the final print than what's indicated here.
Lovers is a shot I really like. the chaos of the people, and the order of the lovers and the architecture. I like the leading line and how it dumps the viewer back into chaos. In the final print I make the viewer really work for it and it has a lot of soot and chalk. Younger people seemed to like it. It did not sell.
The first picture is part of a series I did on bipolar disorder. It is no accident that she looks like a mannequin, stilted and unnatural. Bipolar people are constantly struggling to hold themselves together.
The horses are just a shot that I liked for me, but isn't really indicative of my style. I do like the movement of the shot. Lame composition really. did not sell and certainly the weakest image. More soot and chalk in the final print than what's indicated here.
Lovers is a shot I really like. the chaos of the people, and the order of the lovers and the architecture. I like the leading line and how it dumps the viewer back into chaos. In the final print I make the viewer really work for it and it has a lot of soot and chalk. Younger people seemed to like it. It did not sell.
